Playtest Report

<Meant to post this one two weeks ago>

We haven’t played a large game in a while so we broke out some forest and aquatic terrain and decided to try reenacting the Jaburo Drop from 0079.  We did the scenario three times, each time increasing the size of the army to see how well it would scale; it also gave us a chance to try some of the very minor rules tweaks we were discussing.  The scenario would be a pseudo two-mission campaign with the twist being the second mission (underground) kicks off while the first mission (top side) is ongoing.  The sooner the 1^st mission is completed the sooner reinforcements can arrive.

JABURO INVASION

420 Points each.  Each side has 5 Command Points to use between topside and underground.  Zeon may only deploy amphibious suits underground, starting at the end of Round 1.  After Topside battle is over, all remaining units are reinforcements for below ground arriving at the edge of the battlespace

TOP SIDE

Federation Army

Gundam RX 78-6 Mudrock

2x Guntank

2x Guncannon

1x GM Mass Produced

Total Points 225

Zeon Army

Zaku Commander

2x Zaku

2x AC Guy

2x Z’Gok

1x Zock

Total Points 200

UNDERGROUND

Federation

Amuro’s Gundam RX78-2

Guncannon

Guntank

7x GM Mass Produced

2x Ball

Total Points 195

Zeon

Char’s Z’Gok Commander

Z’Gok

2x AC Guy

2x Agg

Zock

Total Points 220

TOPSIDE

Zeon victory.  Zeon stuck to cover and underwater in the opening match drawing the federation artillery closer baiting them out, the Zock by himself destroyed two Guncannon units.  At the end of turn one the Zeon player deployed their amphibious units outside of either Sensor range or behind Line of Sight (LoS) blocking terrain.  With the overwhelming unit advantage they pressed hard wiping out the federation forces.

The Gundam Mudrock was essential to decimating over half of the zeon force but was taken down after a barrage of melee attacks from ambushing amphibious suits.  At the end of this battle a Zaku Commander and a Zaku II with full pilot skill remaining survived and arrived as reinforcements for the underground battle.

UNDERGROUND

The underground turned into a battle of maximum carnage. The amphibious Zeon suits deployed behind cover and out of sight.  We started the battle with a Federation GM patrol investigating the explosions caused by their infiltration.  Federation GM made first contact and fire a barrage from its beam spray gun onto an Agg that emerged from the rock, miraculously the Agg made all of its Armor saves.  By the same token when the Agg charged the GM the two made equal and opposing melee rolls, none emerging the victor they were both unscathed.

The Gundam leapt into battle protecting his ally slaying the Agg and firing off a salvo of shots from its powerful beam rifle into the Zock and AC Guy it spotted.  Just like in the show the Zock’s armor was too thick to be defeated by a pair of beam rifle shots and it retaliated blasting Gundam with its beam cannon.  This continued with both forces decimating each other until it was just the Gundam left and reinforcing Zakus who arrived.

Meanwhile, back near the White Base a GM patrol discovered a pair of Z’Goks including Char’s Z’Gok who made quick work of them, their Iron Nail plunging through the GMs core destroying them utterly.  Then Char made a surprise attack leaping on top of the White Base, blindsiding and destroying the Guncannon unit (fortunately the pilot survived) and blasted the Guntank.  The two remaining Balls on guard fired back but they were no match for the Red Comet.

The game culminated with a show down between Amuro and Char.  Amuro took some tactically advantageous shots firing at Char’s Z’Gok from behind while it mauled the white base, enough to deplete his pilot skill and allowing one of the Ball’s to get off a few lucky shots and lower his suits Hull Points (HP).  Char cleared the deck, unleashed a barrage onto the White Base bringing the total damage sustained to 1400 points before making his escape.  Amuro was distracted by the Zaku II commander who was mercilessly firing Bazookas into his backside.  We finished the game with Amuro destroying the remaining two Zakus and Char making it to the table edge escaping.

Overall, a very well balanced fight.  It was exciting to see how the battle would play out with differing points.  The Federation had a 25 point advantage top side but still lost due to superior strategy.  Meanwhile we had the second stage battle in this campaign mode where the reinforcements made a serious difference.  In a proper Campaign mode we would play less aggressively and try to preserve more units for a second, third or fourth mission in a campaign but this one turned out well.  Several times each player thought they were going to lose the mission only to snatch victory from defeat.  This is the third time we played the Jaburo scenario, and this time with the largest army and it was a blast.

RESULTS

White Base 1400 damage

Char’s Z’Gok – 200/600 HP and 1 Pilot Skill

Amuro’s Gundam – 500/1200 HP and 1 Pilot Skill

Playtesting Goals Met

-New Melee Rules (d6 based)

-Pilot Skill usage in new Melee rules

-New Twin-link Rules

-Updated Cover Rules

-Updated Tactical Advantage Rules for ATK / Evade d20 Swap (High Ground, Point Blank, Blindside)

-Updated Command Points for ATK / Evade d20 Swap (Seize the Initiative, All-Out Attack, Take the Shot and Focus Fire)

-Suit Updates for Guntank, Zock, and Z’Gock Commander

-New Arrival – Gundam Mudrock

Playtest Goals for next time

-Melee weapons at range (Whips, Boomerangs and Extendo-arms)

-Updated Shield Break rules

-Alternate Melee damage determination

-Skill Shot Vs Skill Defense

-Unit Priority